REJOICE EVERMORE
“Rejoice evermore,” 1 Thess. 5:16
“Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice,” Phil. 4:4.
The Christian religion is a happy religion. I think that, in some sense, it is the scandal of religion that so few people have understood that fact, and most of those who think they understand it have learned the wrong lesson.
It is not a religion of carnal joy and merry-making. Most religious leaders in our day think that is the case, and they come up with all kinds of projects and programs to entertain the people and keep them happy. They skate as close as they can to the line between that which is purely carnal and that which is spiritual in order to keep them coming back. Sometimes they just close their eyes and plunge past all boundaries.
I am not talking about that kind of joy that entertains the carnal man, and does nothing for the spirit. I am talking about that true spiritual joy that allows mortals to taste a little bit of heaven before we get to heaven.
I am not talking about that kind of pleasure that enables us to forget our troubles for a little while. It is pagan philosophy that teaches its people how to numb themselves to pain. The Christian religion differs in that it brings a higher joy that enables us to rather rejoice in affliction.
That is a joy that enables us to know that even in “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psa. 23:4), the Lord is with us, and we can enjoy his felt presence and rejoice in it. That is a kind of joy the worldling can never know. It is a kind of peace that “passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7), and brings us into the very presence of the Almighty.
2 Cor. “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy.”
There are ever so many people who seem to think the sum and substance of religion is a long face and a sad expression. They go around looking like they are practicing for a funeral. You would think their face would break if they tried to smile. It is no wonder so many people are turned off by religion. I would be turned off too, if I thought that was what religion is all about. Far from taking all the pleasure out of life, the Christian religion and the gospel message are “helpers of your joy.”
1 John 1:4, “And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.
The world is full of entertainment. People seem to think they were put here to be entertained, and you can find all the entertainment you want —usually for a price. But the gospel was provided that the earnest, Godfearing child of God could find, not just joy, but fullness of joy. That is a joy the world can never provide. The worldling knows nothing about it, and he could not understand it if you told him.
Bear in mind that, “Rejoice evermore,” does not speak of permission. That is a commandment. We are commanded to rejoice. We are commanded to be happy.
To the person who is weighted down with all the trouble he can bear that would be mockery—if God did not also provide ample instruction on how to rise above our troubles and rejoice even in adversity. Such a command would only add to our misery if he did not enable us to find benefit from our affliction.
Job suffered as few people ever suffered, and, like all of us, he did his share of complaining. But in it all he was able to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord’ (Job 1:21). In the end of it all God gave him far more than he had before.
If you have ever worried about your legacy, consider that nobody would have ever heard of Job, if it had not been for his suffering. Iron shines the brightest, when it is fired the hottest. What devout child of God would not be willing to suffer, if it made his testimony shine all the brighter?
Most things have their time. When they are done, they are over and done with; but not so with rejoicing. Paul told the Philippians:
Phil. 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice.”
Paul instructs us to rejoice always, and for emphasis he says it again.
In our text we are commanded to “rejoice evermore.” There is no time when we are not commanded to rejoice. Solomon tells us there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh” (Songs 3:4). But the felt presence of God in our affliction enables us to regain our composure, and rejoice, even in adversity.
This command to rejoice is set against a background of instruction for times of opposition and adversity. Notice the context.
Vss. 14,15, “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.”
Men may tax your patience, but rejoice evermore. The feebleminded may prove to be a burden, but rejoice evermore. You may have to warn the unruly, but rejoice evermore.
David probably never had a sadder day than the day the baby born to him and Bathsheba died, but when he received the news the baby was dead he
“arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped,” (2 Sam. 12:20).
His servants could not understand that, but he explained:
Vss. 22,23, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now that he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
David comforted himself in God’s promise and rejoiced in the prospect. Rejoicing is both a duty and a privilege—for all times and all circumstances.
There are some people whose lives seem to be always on the level. They are never in the valley of despair, but they are never on the mountaintop of rejoicing either. They never seem to face insurmountable difficulties. Their lives are one long monotonous trip.
They never go to bed terrified at the prospect of what lies before them, but they never experience the unspeakable joy that comes when, with a wave of his hand, God removes the force that seemed certain to destroy them.
Rejoicing in the Lord not only brings satisfaction, it is a source of strength. It is hard to hinder those who are truly happy in the Lord. There was a time in my earlier ministry when, for years on end, I was weighted down with more difficulties than it seemed I could endure. I would start out in the morning, and it seemed that those problems extended as far as the eye could see—with no prospect of any relief.
For months on end, I would lie awake at night, in a cold sweat, unable to go to sleep for the prospect of all that lay before me. I would finally go to sleep, only to wake up long before the time, still as doubtful as I was the night before.
I earned my living in direct sales, and I did not dare call on people in that frame of mind. Even when you try to hide it, a sad disposition in the salesman inevitably produces a negative response from the prospect.
Morning after morning, after I left home and before I made my first call, I would find some quiet spot where I could read my Bible and encourage myself in its promises. I would not start my day until those promises had lifted my spirits, and given me the outlook and the courage I needed.
That shortened my workday; but I would have wasted my time calling on people before I had spent time encouraging myself in the Lord’s promises.
Finally rejoicing in God’s promises, I would go to work, assured that, in spite of all else, God would make a way—and he always did. Those were truly dark days, and I hope they never return. But having survived them, I would not take anything for the experience. There were lessons I learned from the trials and adversity of that time that I could never have learned in any other way.
2 Cor. 1:10, “Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.”
I can rejoice in deliverance past with full assurance there is deliverance yet to come. I may have changed, but God never changes. His promises are as sure as they have ever been. There is no greater strength than that strength we receive from rejoicing in the promises of God.
1 Sam. 7:12, “Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
Like Samuel in that long ago day, I can raise my Ebenezer, and say the Lord hath helped me. Without that help I could never survive. With it I can face the future in full confidence that he will yet deliver.
Over the last several years I have had prostate cancer, stomach cancer, and throat cancer, along with an assortment of other ailments. The throat cancer left me unable to talk above a whisper for eight months. That got my attention. I bought my gravestone, and a grave lot, and put most of my library in boxes. I did not want to leave that job for my wife to take care of.
Stomach cancer can really get serious. It is usually too far gone before you know it is there, but the doctor found mine in time, and the Lord brought me through it all. The doctors don’t say anything about remission. They tell me all three kinds of cancer are gone, and they do not expect them to return.
I first came down with prostate cancer. My PSA reading had been rising, and my primary physician sent me to a specialist, and he did a biopsy. When he came through the door with the report in his hand, I could tell from his expression what the verdict was going to be.
He had that practicing for a funeral look I mentioned a moment ago. They must learn it in med school, and I suppose it is a good idea they do. It would probably be in poor taste to come in with a bright cheery expression and, “It’s a great day today; the sun is out, and everything is coming up roses,” and then after the initial pleasantries, “Man, I hate to tell you, but you are going to die.” That really would look bad.
Anyway, he came in with that hang-dog look on his face. He sat down in front of me and started shuffling papers, without making eye contact. It is always a bad sign when they don’t want to look you in the eye.
After awhile, he put the papers down, and said, “Mr. Hunt, I hate to tell you, but it is cancer.” I am sure he had told other people that, and you would think he be used to it by now, but he seemed to have trouble getting the words out. Then he went back to shuffling papers.
After awhile he put the papers down, and looked up and said, “This doesn’t seem to be bothering you.” I said, “I don’t see why it should; it is not my problem.” That seemed to puzzle him.
I said, “It is not my problem; God put me here to preach, and if he wants any more preaching out of me, it is his job to keep me here. And if he does not have any more preaching for me to do, I don’t see any reason to hang around getting in the way.” As far as I know, he is still puzzled.
There is truly a strength in rejoicing in the Lord, and depending on his promises.
I am convinced that I belong to him; I am his property. Some people never have anything, because they don’t take care of what they have. But you can be sure that God takes care of his property, and I find comfort in the thought that I am his property.
Whether he wants me here, or whether he wants me over there, he will take care of me, and it is alright with me either way.
It is much easier to rejoice in the face of adversity, if you can be content to simply accept whatever God has in store for you.
In the history of mankind, no other woman was ever blessed the way Mary the mother of our Lord was blessed, and nobody was ever more willing to accept whatever God has in store. When the angel Gabriel came to her to tell her she was to be mother of Jesus we read:
Luke 1:28, “And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.”
Mary was blessed to have a special relationship with her Lord that no one else ever had or ever will have. She conceived our Lord in her womb, and she carried him the normal nine months before he was born.
How tenderly she must have nursed him and cared for him. How tenderly she must have comforted him when he fell and scraped his knees, or when his younger brothers and sisters teased him.
And you can be sure they picked on him and teased him. Bear in mind that he was the very God of heaven. His brothers and sisters were all sinners of Adam’s race.
He never transgressed God’s commandments, nor the instructions of his parents. His brothers and sisters did, and they got in trouble the way we all do. They were forever being corrected and punished; he never was. Imagine how jealous they were of him. Imagine how they must have teased him and picked on him.
In it all Mary was there to comfort him, and encourage him.
During his public ministry, imagine how conflicted she was, and how she suffered, when she saw the way he was treated. Imagine her suffering when she saw him hanging on the cross.
He was the very God of heaven, but to Mary he was more than that. He was her little boy—all grown up now, but still her little boy.
In her own mind she could feel every stripe of the whip, and every blow of the hammer as they drove the nails through his hands and his feet. I have no doubt that good woman would gladly had taken his place if she could.
What mother has not sat by the bedside of a sick child, burning with fever, and would not have gladly taken his place. Never imagine that Mary was any less human than you and I are, or that she suffered any less than you would have, if you had been in her place.
Imagine the tender relationship between our Lord and his mother.
All of time and eternity revolves around what took place on the cross that day. The Lord cried with a loud voice, and God thundered in the heavens. That mighty voice shook the very planet.
Matt. 27:50, 51, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake and the rocks rent.”
God was doing his mighty work, and even nature paid homage. The very sun in the sky, and the stars in the heavens fell dark. God’s Son was making atonement for the sins of his people. Their sin debt was being paid never again to be brought up against them. And the very heavens bore witness to the solemnity of it all.
Matt. 27:45, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.”
The thieves on the other two crosses, and those at the foot of the cross had been mocking. But, they were struck dumb with fear, and their mouths were stopped, when the lights of heaven went out.
When the first Spanish Conquistadores reached America in the 1500’s, they found the native Americans still talking about a time, many generations before, when there was such an earthquake that the lights of the world went out. God was doing his mighty work, and he would have all the world to know that something mighty was going on.
If I might say it again, all of time and eternity revolves around what took place on the cross that day. The Lord Jesus gave his life to atone for the sins of his people.
But, to get to the point I set out to make—the Lord did not die, he did not give up the ghost—until he had made arrangements for his mother to be taken care of.
John 19: 26, 27, “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her into his own home.”
Think of that. The most important event in all of human history is preceded by the tenderest moment in all of history.
Our Lord was hanging on the cross in excruciating pain. More than that, he could consciously feel the accumulated guilt of all the sins of all his people pressing down on him. I am convinced that, excruciating as the physical pain was, it pales beside his suffering from the felt guilt of the sins of his people.
Words cannot describe the awesomeness of that moment, and they cannot describe the tenderness of the moment that preceded it.
Our Lord was suffering as no mortal had ever suffered. The most important event in time and eternity was about to take place. But that event would not take place until the Lord had seen to it that arrangements were made for his mother.
All that transpired that day was preceded by another event that took place thirty-three years before.
Luke 1:30,31 “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”
Then verse 38, “And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”
Consider for a moment, if you will, what Mary was saying. She was espoused to Joseph, but they had not yet come together as husband and wife. They were still subject to Moses’ Law, and that law was very clear (Deut. 22:13-21). If a man came to claim his bride and found that she was not a maid (not a virgin) vs.14, it was his place to “bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone here with stones that she die” (vs. 21).
This placed Mary in danger for her life. How would she explain her condition to anybody. Especially, how could she ever explain it to Joseph. He would certainly know this was not his child. He had every right to allow the law to take its course. That is what Matthew meant, when he said Joseph was “not willing to make her a public example’ (Matt.1:19). He was not willing to have her stoned. He was bewildered by all that was going on, but he loved her still.
What Mary told him was the most preposterous story he had ever heard. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
It was then that God sent his angel, probably Gabriel, the same angel who brought the news to Mary, and assured him that Mary was telling the truth, and everything was going to be alright.
Matt. 1:20, 21, “But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary they wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Like Mary before him, Joseph took the angel at his word.
No other woman, no other human, was ever so blessed as Mary was, but all of that was preceded by her saying, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”
It has taken me a long time to get to the point. Sometimes that is the case with me, but the point is that nothing ever prepares us for rejoicing in the Lord the way it does to simply take God at his word, and yield ourselves to his will.
How much easier it is to rejoice in the Lord, when we are simply submissive to what may be his will for us. How much easier it is when we can say, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”
How much easier it is to suffer pain, or privation, or adversity, when we can believe that God is going to bring us through it all—and bring us out stronger in the end. That was one of the very first lessons the Lord taught in his public ministry.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5,6 and 7) is his first recorded sermon. In chapter 5, verses 10-12, we read:
Matt. 5:10-12, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
This is the Lord himself speaking, and he describes the adversary and all his minions coming after us with every weapon at their disposal.
You might expect him to say, “If they persecute you, if they revile you, if they say all manner of evil against you, and that falsely , just hunker down and bear it; it could be worse.”
But no, he says nothing of the sort. He bids us to rejoice and be glad— be exceedingly glad. That is about as counter-intuitive as anything can get. That is not what you would expect him to say. How could he say such a thing? There are any number of reasons.
He gives one reason in this same passage. He says, “For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” If you suffer “for righteousness sake,” you have a kind of relationship with the suffering saints of old which those who have never suffered cannot have.
More than that, you have a relationship with the Lord in his suffering. Every heaven-born soul has a relationship with him as his child, but those who suffer for righteous’ sake have a special blessing in that suffering.
The Lord never teaches us a lesson in principle without, somewhere in his Word, providing the same lesson in practice.
Peter and the other apostles were arrested and brought before the magistrates for preaching. They were threatened and beaten and “commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus,” (Acts 5:40. But if the men on that council thought they intimidated those apostles, they were wrong.
Vs. 41. “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”
The council wanted to shame them and cause them pain—but these preachers rejoiced that they were “counted worthy to suffer shame” for the Lord’s sake. It is hard to intimidate those who embrace the intimidation and rejoice in it.
Isa. 26:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”
Trusting the Lord, believing that he is in control, and he will take care of us makes the cares of this life all the more bearable, and it brings a kind of peace the world can never understand.
Phil. 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.
Not even the threat of death can destroy that kind of peace. There is a line in one of our songs that says, “Come welcome death, I’ll gladly go with thee.” That is the kind of peace that is ready to live, but willing to die. Paul said:
Rom. 14:8, “For whether we live we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
The story is told of an old man during the days of persecution, who was brought before the magistrate for preaching. The judge ordered him to deny his faith or he would confiscate everything he owned.
The old man wanted to know, “How can you take all I own, when my greatest treasure is laid up where you cannot touch it?’
The judge said if he did not deny his faith, he would banish him from the kingdom.
The old man said, “How can you banish me, when my citizenship is not of this world?
The judge said, if he did not deny his faith, he would have him put to death.
The old man wanted to know, “How can you take my life, when for forty years my life has been hid with Christ in God?”
The judge wanted to know, “What can you do with such a fanatic?”
That person whose trust is in the Lord can rejoice even in the face of death. How often have we heard of some saint lying on his or her death bed. And then at the moment of death, a slight smile comes over her face, she raises feeble, bony hands, hands that have not moved in days, and she manages to clap once or twice and she is gone.
No one ever did any such thing except those who are convinced that our Lord is “the Lord both of the dead and living” (vs. 9). He is convinced that the Lord who has taken care of him in life will take care of him in death.
Psa. 30:5, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Sometimes weeping endures; it lasts all night long, and it seems that morning will never come. But when it does come, it is all the more precious for the agony that preceded it.
When I was a boy, none of the children in our community wore shoes from the last frost in the spring until the first frost in the fall.
When you run and play barefoot, it is simply to be expected that you will stub your toe from time to time, and sometimes you will do a really good job of it.
If you stubbed your toe, you could be sure that one of your smart-aleck buddies would assure you, “That will feel good, when it stops hurting.” When I was holding my foot, wishing I had not done that, and somebody said that to me, I always wanted to hit him. But when you are the smallest kid on the block you are very careful about who you hit.
But it is true. It does feel good, when it quits hurting, and the more grievous the agony, the greater the relief when it quits hurting. There is nobody who can rejoice the way those people rejoice who know what it is to suffer pain and be delivered.
Every mountain is surrounded by valleys. Israel was a land of hills and valleys, and that is the way of the heaven-born soul. We are sometimes in the valley of despair, but we are often on the mountain with the Lord.
If you are on the mountaintop with the Lord, rejoice. If you are in the valley of despair, rejoice and keep traveling. The mountain is just beyond the valley, and no matter how deep the valley you are in today, the Lord is there.
David was not talking about ordinary despair, he was talking about the very “valley of the shadow of death.” Even there, we can rejoice, deliverance will come.
Psa. 2:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.”
The greatest joy of heaven lies in the fact that we will there be “forever with the Lord.” In that sense—the valley of despair is a foretaste of heaven—the Lord is with us even there. In times of distress we often feel a greater need for the Lord than we do in better times. And we are able to enjoy his presence in a way that we cannot at any other time.
I don’t think I have ever felt to be any nearer heaven than I did one day, just a few days after I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The doctor seemed to think I was not taking the matter seriously, and he tried to impress on me the fact that I might die.
I was on the way somewhere; I don’t remember where, and the thought came to me, “I have been preaching about heaven for all these years. Could it be so that, sooner rather than later, I am going to be there. Sooner rather than later, I am going to see the face of my Lord. The very prospect that I might before long be in the very presence of God—that I might soon look on his face— brought a kind of joy I had never known before, and have not recovered from even today.
“Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice,” Phil. 4:4.
THE END